You build a character, a shell, and if you build it right, something comes to live inside it. Elizabeth Hand More Quotes by Elizabeth Hand More Quotes From Elizabeth Hand But talent—if you don't encourage it, if you don't train it, it dies. It might run wild for a little while, but it will never mean anything. Like a wild horse. If you don't tame it and teach it to run on track, to pace itself and bear a rider, it doesn't matter how fast it is. It's useless. Elizabeth Hand horserunningmean There is a love of wood, as of other things that do not answer to our touch. Elizabeth Hand woodsanswers I went to college to study drama where I discovered I had no talent and after a period of dropping out majored in cultural anthropology which of course meant more masks and dancing. I studied what interested me and so I had to become a writer because my education had left me unsuited for a decent well-paying job. Elizabeth Hand collegejobsdrama I never think about genre when I work. I've written fantasy, science fiction, supernatural fiction, and am now working on a suspense novel. Genres are mostly useful as a marketing tool, and to help booksellers known where to shelve a book. Elizabeth Hand suspense-novelsbookthinking The irruption of the supernatural into our world is a much more enticing notion to explore than the same thing happening in some past time, or in a wholly imaginary world. Elizabeth Hand notionour-worldpast Real myths are often strange and startlingly unfamiliar, and don't always give up their meanings easily; you have to tease them out, and for me, that's one of the pleasures of reading older collections of lore. Elizabeth Hand giving-uprealreading I wanted to have very strong female characters. I just thought it was always the way the world should be. Elizabeth Hand strongcharacterworld It sounds creepy, but I always liked the idea of disappearing then becoming something new. That of course was before I disappeared. Elizabeth Hand creepysoundideas Endless longing; a face you'd known since childhood, since birth almost; a body that moved as though it were your own. These were things you never spoke of, things you never hoped for; things you could never admit to. Things you'd die for, and die of. Elizabeth Hand childhoodbodyfaces I was a tomboy as a kid - I was skinny and had cropped hair and was often mistaken for a boy - and up until I was about six, I had my own very fluid ideas of gender in that I believed that, somehow, an individual could choose whether or not s/he wanted to be a boy or a girl. Elizabeth Hand gendergirlhairideas I didn't read much SF as a kid - I was a total Tolkien geek - but I started reading Samuel Delany and Angela Carter and Ursula LeGuin in high school, and I was definitely taken with the notion that here was a literature that could explore various notions of gender identity and how it affects the culture at large. Elizabeth Hand genderidentitycultureschool I read '1984' at a precocious age, like 8, and when I did the math, I realized that Julia, Winston Smith's lover, was born the same year I was, 1957. I read that book over and over again with the 1960s as a backdrop: anti-war and anti-bomb protests and this general pervasive sense of doom. Elizabeth Hand yearbornagebook I still love it. I love lots of other music, too, and always have, but punk's the soundtrack of my youth. I think you never escape the music you're listening to and seeing when you're seventeen, eighteen, nineteen years old. Elizabeth Hand youyouthmusiclove I love artists. I find them fascinating. To me, there really is a genuine magic in what they do. Elizabeth Hand megenuinemagiclove I've always wanted to write an airport book. Elizabeth Hand airportwritealwaysbook
